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Monika Zin

Leipzig University (Universität Leipzig), Institute of Indology and Central Asian Studiess, Faculty Member

Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Research Centre "Buddhist Murals of Kucha on the Northern Silk Road", Faculty Member

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Universität Leipzig

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies

Ines Konczak-Nagel

Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig

Fang Wang王芳

Leipzig University (Universität Leipzig)

University of Chicago

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Vinay Kumar Gupta

Archaeological Survey of India

Tianshu Zhu 朱天舒

University of Macau

Birgit Angelika Schmidt

Freie Universität Berlin

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Papers by Monika Zin

Kucha's Pictorial Programmes: The Example of Kizil Cave 175 (Temptation Cave

Matsuoka, Hiroko / Moriyama, Shinya / Neill, Tyler (eds.), To the Heart of Truth: Felicitation Volume for Eli Franco on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 104. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien,..., 2023

Sun and Moon in the Paintings of Kucha

Brentjes, Rana / Brentjes, Sonja / Mastorakou, Stamatina (eds.), Imagining the Heavens across Eurasia, From Antiquity to Early Modernity. Sesto San Giovanni: Mimesis International, pp. 177–190, pls. 10.1–10.8, 2024

From Gandhara to Kucha and Back Again. Identifications of Gandharan Reliefs by Means of Kuchean Iconography

Majumdar, Susmita Basu (ed.), Transcending Boundaries, Premodern Cultural Transactions across Asia. Essays in Honour of Osmund Bopearachchi. Delhi: Primus Books, pp. 309–331, 2024

Buddhist art’s late bloomer

Archaeopress Publishing Ltd eBooks, Mar 31, 2018

Maitreya, the Saviour?: Enigmatic ‘Mahābodhisatvas’ in Kucha

Hualin International Journal of Buddhist Studies 6.1. pp.336–378, 2023

Narrative art requires pictorial conventions to convey the content of pictures. Artists have to p... more Narrative art requires pictorial conventions to convey the content of pictures. Artists have to provide information about the social status of a person, the place and time of an event, etc., without employing words. Pictorial conventions have to be consistent to be understandable; any deviation will be detected and is therefore probably meaningful. In paintings from Kucha, a clear distinction is made between the headgear of a king and the hairdo of a Brahmanical ascetic. However, in a number of jātaka representations the self-sacrificing king is shown with the hairstyle of a Brahmanical ascetic. There even are jātaka paintings in which the Bodhisatva is shown with a mandorla—a feature reserved in Kucha exclusively for the samyaksaṃbuddhas and the ‘Mahābodhisatvas’ like the future Buddha Maitreya. It is obvious that the paintings are transmitting a particular message. But how would a viewer in the past have understood, for example, an image of the King Pradīpapradyota—shown guiding the merchants on their way with his hands burning—represented with the ascetic hairdo of Maitreya… or rather, of Avalokiteśvara?

The usnisa as a Physical Characteristic of the Buddha's Relatives and Successors

Silk Road Art and Archaeology, 2003

... importance because they cannot be represented: the forty teeth, each hair on the body having ... more ... importance because they cannot be represented: the forty teeth, each hair on the body having its own pore, genitals covered by a ... 1.32 (ed. Vol.2, p. 19): ayam hi deva kumaro unhisasiso/ yam payam deva kumaro unhisasiso/ idam pi &amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;ssa mahapurisassa mahapurisalakkhanam ...

Vidūṣaka's Cousins: Comic Theatre Characters on Both Sides of the Erythraean Sea

East and West, 2023

This paper will touch on two vital points for the art and culture of ancient Andhra: knowledge of... more This paper will touch on two vital points for the art and culture of ancient Andhra: knowledge of the Mediterranean theatre and the appearance of individual court jesters recognisable by means of the iconography of the vidūṣaka as described in the Nāṭyaśāstra. There are good reasons to believe that the Western mimus was known on the subcontinent, but it can also be demonstrated that the physical characteristics of South Asian jesters had reminiscence in depictions of the comical characters on the territory of the Roman Empire. The exchange of two theatre cultures appears to exist across the Erythraean Sea and it appears to have been reciprocal.

Nagarjunakonda: Monasteries and Their School Affiliations

Acta Asiatica Varsoviensia, 2022

Narrative representations have not been found in all Buddhist monasteries. In some areas, for ins... more Narrative representations have not been found in all Buddhist monasteries. In some areas, for instance in the region of modern Sannati in ancient Āndhradeśa, only one stūpa, known today as Kanaganahalli, was decorated with opulent narrative reliefs, while the others display none at all. It appears that some Buddhist schools were interested in narrative representations while others were not. The area now known as Nagarjunakonda-the historical Vijayapurī of the Ikṣvāku dynasty in the 3rd century ce-offers the best opportunity to investigate which monasteries the narrative reliefs came from. Among the approximately 40 Buddhist complexes that have been excavated, some of which actually name the schools the resident monks belonged to, and which were built following different layouts, all narrative reliefs were discovered in only a few of the complexes. All of these complexes show a very similar layout with a stūpa outside the monks' cells, which are positioned in a U-shape, and two apsidal temples facing each other. One of these complexes gives the name of the related school as Aparamahāvinaśaila. It seems that this school was one of those interested in narrative representations, while all the others mentioned in inscriptions at Nagarjunakonda (Theravādins, Mahīśāsakas, and Bahuśrutīyas) were not.

Caves with Ancient Paintings in Kizil’s Periphery

Marciniak, Katarzyna / Kania, Stanisław Jan / Wielińska-Soltwedel, Małgorzata / Bareja-Starzyńska, Agata (edd.), Guruparamparā, Studies on Buddhism, India, Tibet and More in Honour of Professor Marek Mejor. Warsaw: University of Warsaw Press, pp. 519–538 , 2022

Visualizing a Teaching: Sermon Scenes in Kucha

Narrative Visions and Visual Narratives in Indian Buddhism

Moving from text to art, this chapter seeks to explore the role of images and imagery through a s... more Moving from text to art, this chapter seeks to explore the role of images and imagery through a study of one of the most interesting early Buddhist artistic sites. Nowhere else in the Buddhist world are so many narratives illustrated as in the cave temples in Kucha. Jātakas, conversion stories, venerations of the Buddha(s), praṇidhis, scenes from the Buddha’s life, particularly from the parinirvāṇa cycle, and Maitreya preaching in Tuṣita heaven – we find as many as 100 narrative representations in a single cave. The settings of depictions located indoors are preset, and they reoccur in the settled iconography. The jātakas are usually reduced to the single most dramatic moment of action. This is often also the case for scenes including the Buddha, but not for all. The sophisticated pictorial conventions make it possible to represent complex contents, even when the manner of depiction is very minimalistic. One pictorial unit can incorporate portrayals of the same person in different r...

About Visual Language, Drunken Women, Jesters and Escaping the World

Cracow Indological Studies

Visual communication employs language different than literature. The economy of viewing calls for... more Visual communication employs language different than literature. The economy of viewing calls for elements of representation familiar to the viewer, which, when shown in a recurring order, become comprehensible. For us, recognising these elements is often difficult as they can be entirely absent from the literary text. The person of the jester, whose appearance corresponds to the vidūṣaka of the Nāṭyaśāstra, is found frequently in narrative scenes depicted through visual means. His presence often indicates that another figure in the picture is about to withdraw from worldly life. The jester then expresses utter disapproval of his master’s decision. The viewer is able to recognise the meaning of the scene because the jester is shown also in erotic and humorous scenes, perhaps representative of the sensual atmosphere of theatre life, or related to the nāyaka and the vidūṣaka of the Kāmasūtra.

Visualizing a Teaching: Sermon Scenes in Kucha

Appleton, Naomi (ed.), Narrative Visions and Visual Narratives in Indian Buddhism. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing, pp. 88–125., 2022

The Mūkapaṅgu Story in the Madras Government Museum: The Problem of the Textual Affiliations of the Narrative Reliefs in Amaravati and Nagarjunakonda

Amaravati: The Art of an Early Buddhist Monument in Context

Akira Shimada and Michael Willis, eds, <em>Amaravati: The Art of an Early Buddhist Monument... more

Crossing the Ocean of saṃsāra: Berlin, Museum für Asiatische Kunst, no. III 9023

The aim of this paper is to explain the meaning of two mural fragments housed in the Central Asia... more The aim of this paper is to explain the meaning of two mural fragments housed in the Central Asian Collection of the Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. The two mural fragments under discussion, nos. III 9023a and III 9023b–c (Pl. 1, Fig. 1), were brought to Berlin by the 4th Turfan Expedition in the year 1914 from the Buddhist cave monasteries in Kizil in the area of Kucha on the Northern Silk Road, today's Province Xinjiang, an autonomous region of the Peoples Republic of China. The murals show peculiar waterscape with persons trying to cross it; they can be compare with similar representations from the area of Kucha.

Migration, Trade and Peoples: Part 2: Gandharan Art

Selection of papers on Gandharan art delivered at the 2005 meeting of the European Association of... more

Traces of Reciprocal Exchange: From Roman Pictorial Models to the World’s Earliest Depictions of Some Narrative Motifs in Andhra Reliefs

Religions

Based on a selection of examples from the sculptural art of Andhra, the paper discusses what poss... more Based on a selection of examples from the sculptural art of Andhra, the paper discusses what possibly motivated the inclusion of motifs and stylistic elements from the ancient Mediterranean into the Buddhist art of the region. While in some cases such adaptations may have been driven by the need to find suitable solutions for the depiction of critical events or by the fact that a foreign motif tied in perfectly with already existing concepts, and thus, reinforced the message to be conveyed, in other cases no such reasons can be detected. Artists seem to have used foreign image types and stylistic variations deliberately to show their supreme craftsmanship or to add aesthetic sophistication to the image programme. The artists of Andhra, therefore, can by no means be regarded as epigones slavishly adhering to the examples set by the Mediterranean; the region—which is the place where narratives later spreading over large parts of Asia and Europe were first depicted—rather has to be reg...

Parinirvāṇa Representations in the Art of Mathura

Mathurā has long been famous as a great centre of Buddhist art. Among the Buddhist art pieces, th... more Mathurā has long been famous as a great centre of Buddhist art. Among the Buddhist art pieces, the number of representations of episodes from the Buddha's life story is limited. Every new narrative representation adds an important dimension to the existing knowledge. A new parinirvāṇa relief was discovered in the Varāha Temple, Mathura.

Fragments of a Divided Whole: On the Exhibition of Several Narrative Reliefs from the Amaravati School of Sculptures

In: Gauri Parimoo Krishnan, R. H. Kulkarni edd. Ratna Dīpaḥ: New Dimensions of Indian Art History and Theory. Essays in Honour of Prof Ratan Parimoo. Delhi: Agam Kala Prakashan, pp. 13-23, 2021

In his paper on the narrative structure and the significance of the snake jatakas 1 Professor Par... more In his paper on the narrative structure and the significance of the snake jatakas 1 Professor Parimoo was able to identify parts of a pillar from the railing of the stupa in Amaravati as belonging together. One fragment is being kept in the Chennai Government Museum, 2 another in the Archaeological Site Museum in Amaravati. 3 The pillar is still far from being completed, even if another fragment in Chennai 4 could be added (fig 1). What we can state, however, following Parimoo, is that the topic of the multiscenic representation which appears to have covered the entire face of the pillar was composed of the narrative of Campaka. The jatakas with a naga as the protagonist comprised an important part of the imagery in Buddhist Andhra. 5 The statement is of importance not only for reasons relating to art history but also in regards to understanding the regional diversities of Buddhism-given, for example, the fact that there is not a single representation of a jataka of a naga from Gandhara. Were the nagas in Gandhara, perhaps-as opposed to in Andhra or in Ajanta-understood only as malicious, and suitable merely for the narratives of the difficult conversions, and unthinkable as the kinder Buddha in his previous re-births? Fig 1: Amaravati, pillar from the railing with representation of the narrative of Campaka, above: Chennai Government Museum, no 113 (photograph by Wojtek Oczkowski), middle: Chennai Government Museum, no 152 (photograph by the present author), below: Archaeological Site Museum in Amaravati, no 23 (photograph by Wojtek Oczkowski); for references cf fns 2, 3, 4.

The Techniques of the Narrative Representations in Old India

This paper aims to present the most specific characteristics of the narrative representations in ... more This paper aims to present the most specific characteristics of the narrative representations in old India with special reference to art in the kingdom of the Sātavāhanas, a dynasty which ruled in central and southern India between the 1st c. BCE and the 3rd c. CE, and had vibrant trade relations with Rome. In the final section new and little-known archaeological material will be presented. The narrative representations produced in the territories of the Sātavāhana Empire were so well-designed and developed that some scholars have considered them to be models for Roman art.1 This idea, which initially seems strange, is certainly worthy of further deliberation since the multi-scene Indian representations predate the Pompeian paintings and Trajan’s Column. The exchange between Rome and India was certainly reciprocal: Roman bronzes have been discovered in the territory of the Sātavāhana Kingdom, and the ‘Casa della Statuetta Indiana’ in Pompeii owes its name to an ivory statue from the...

Kucha's Pictorial Programmes: The Example of Kizil Cave 175 (Temptation Cave

Matsuoka, Hiroko / Moriyama, Shinya / Neill, Tyler (eds.), To the Heart of Truth: Felicitation Volume for Eli Franco on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 104. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien,..., 2023

Sun and Moon in the Paintings of Kucha

Brentjes, Rana / Brentjes, Sonja / Mastorakou, Stamatina (eds.), Imagining the Heavens across Eurasia, From Antiquity to Early Modernity. Sesto San Giovanni: Mimesis International, pp. 177–190, pls. 10.1–10.8, 2024

From Gandhara to Kucha and Back Again. Identifications of Gandharan Reliefs by Means of Kuchean Iconography

Majumdar, Susmita Basu (ed.), Transcending Boundaries, Premodern Cultural Transactions across Asia. Essays in Honour of Osmund Bopearachchi. Delhi: Primus Books, pp. 309–331, 2024

Buddhist art’s late bloomer

Archaeopress Publishing Ltd eBooks, Mar 31, 2018

Maitreya, the Saviour?: Enigmatic ‘Mahābodhisatvas’ in Kucha

Hualin International Journal of Buddhist Studies 6.1. pp.336–378, 2023

Narrative art requires pictorial conventions to convey the content of pictures. Artists have to p... more Narrative art requires pictorial conventions to convey the content of pictures. Artists have to provide information about the social status of a person, the place and time of an event, etc., without employing words. Pictorial conventions have to be consistent to be understandable; any deviation will be detected and is therefore probably meaningful. In paintings from Kucha, a clear distinction is made between the headgear of a king and the hairdo of a Brahmanical ascetic. However, in a number of jātaka representations the self-sacrificing king is shown with the hairstyle of a Brahmanical ascetic. There even are jātaka paintings in which the Bodhisatva is shown with a mandorla—a feature reserved in Kucha exclusively for the samyaksaṃbuddhas and the ‘Mahābodhisatvas’ like the future Buddha Maitreya. It is obvious that the paintings are transmitting a particular message. But how would a viewer in the past have understood, for example, an image of the King Pradīpapradyota—shown guiding the merchants on their way with his hands burning—represented with the ascetic hairdo of Maitreya… or rather, of Avalokiteśvara?

The usnisa as a Physical Characteristic of the Buddha's Relatives and Successors

Silk Road Art and Archaeology, 2003

... importance because they cannot be represented: the forty teeth, each hair on the body having ... more ... importance because they cannot be represented: the forty teeth, each hair on the body having its own pore, genitals covered by a ... 1.32 (ed. Vol.2, p. 19): ayam hi deva kumaro unhisasiso/ yam payam deva kumaro unhisasiso/ idam pi &amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;ssa mahapurisassa mahapurisalakkhanam ...

Vidūṣaka's Cousins: Comic Theatre Characters on Both Sides of the Erythraean Sea

East and West, 2023

This paper will touch on two vital points for the art and culture of ancient Andhra: knowledge of... more This paper will touch on two vital points for the art and culture of ancient Andhra: knowledge of the Mediterranean theatre and the appearance of individual court jesters recognisable by means of the iconography of the vidūṣaka as described in the Nāṭyaśāstra. There are good reasons to believe that the Western mimus was known on the subcontinent, but it can also be demonstrated that the physical characteristics of South Asian jesters had reminiscence in depictions of the comical characters on the territory of the Roman Empire. The exchange of two theatre cultures appears to exist across the Erythraean Sea and it appears to have been reciprocal.

Nagarjunakonda: Monasteries and Their School Affiliations

Acta Asiatica Varsoviensia, 2022

Narrative representations have not been found in all Buddhist monasteries. In some areas, for ins... more Narrative representations have not been found in all Buddhist monasteries. In some areas, for instance in the region of modern Sannati in ancient Āndhradeśa, only one stūpa, known today as Kanaganahalli, was decorated with opulent narrative reliefs, while the others display none at all. It appears that some Buddhist schools were interested in narrative representations while others were not. The area now known as Nagarjunakonda-the historical Vijayapurī of the Ikṣvāku dynasty in the 3rd century ce-offers the best opportunity to investigate which monasteries the narrative reliefs came from. Among the approximately 40 Buddhist complexes that have been excavated, some of which actually name the schools the resident monks belonged to, and which were built following different layouts, all narrative reliefs were discovered in only a few of the complexes. All of these complexes show a very similar layout with a stūpa outside the monks' cells, which are positioned in a U-shape, and two apsidal temples facing each other. One of these complexes gives the name of the related school as Aparamahāvinaśaila. It seems that this school was one of those interested in narrative representations, while all the others mentioned in inscriptions at Nagarjunakonda (Theravādins, Mahīśāsakas, and Bahuśrutīyas) were not.

Caves with Ancient Paintings in Kizil’s Periphery

Marciniak, Katarzyna / Kania, Stanisław Jan / Wielińska-Soltwedel, Małgorzata / Bareja-Starzyńska, Agata (edd.), Guruparamparā, Studies on Buddhism, India, Tibet and More in Honour of Professor Marek Mejor. Warsaw: University of Warsaw Press, pp. 519–538 , 2022

Visualizing a Teaching: Sermon Scenes in Kucha

Narrative Visions and Visual Narratives in Indian Buddhism

Moving from text to art, this chapter seeks to explore the role of images and imagery through a s... more Moving from text to art, this chapter seeks to explore the role of images and imagery through a study of one of the most interesting early Buddhist artistic sites. Nowhere else in the Buddhist world are so many narratives illustrated as in the cave temples in Kucha. Jātakas, conversion stories, venerations of the Buddha(s), praṇidhis, scenes from the Buddha’s life, particularly from the parinirvāṇa cycle, and Maitreya preaching in Tuṣita heaven – we find as many as 100 narrative representations in a single cave. The settings of depictions located indoors are preset, and they reoccur in the settled iconography. The jātakas are usually reduced to the single most dramatic moment of action. This is often also the case for scenes including the Buddha, but not for all. The sophisticated pictorial conventions make it possible to represent complex contents, even when the manner of depiction is very minimalistic. One pictorial unit can incorporate portrayals of the same person in different r...

About Visual Language, Drunken Women, Jesters and Escaping the World

Cracow Indological Studies

Visual communication employs language different than literature. The economy of viewing calls for... more Visual communication employs language different than literature. The economy of viewing calls for elements of representation familiar to the viewer, which, when shown in a recurring order, become comprehensible. For us, recognising these elements is often difficult as they can be entirely absent from the literary text. The person of the jester, whose appearance corresponds to the vidūṣaka of the Nāṭyaśāstra, is found frequently in narrative scenes depicted through visual means. His presence often indicates that another figure in the picture is about to withdraw from worldly life. The jester then expresses utter disapproval of his master’s decision. The viewer is able to recognise the meaning of the scene because the jester is shown also in erotic and humorous scenes, perhaps representative of the sensual atmosphere of theatre life, or related to the nāyaka and the vidūṣaka of the Kāmasūtra.

Visualizing a Teaching: Sermon Scenes in Kucha

Appleton, Naomi (ed.), Narrative Visions and Visual Narratives in Indian Buddhism. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing, pp. 88–125., 2022

The Mūkapaṅgu Story in the Madras Government Museum: The Problem of the Textual Affiliations of the Narrative Reliefs in Amaravati and Nagarjunakonda

Amaravati: The Art of an Early Buddhist Monument in Context

Akira Shimada and Michael Willis, eds, <em>Amaravati: The Art of an Early Buddhist Monument... more

Crossing the Ocean of saṃsāra: Berlin, Museum für Asiatische Kunst, no. III 9023

The aim of this paper is to explain the meaning of two mural fragments housed in the Central Asia... more The aim of this paper is to explain the meaning of two mural fragments housed in the Central Asian Collection of the Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. The two mural fragments under discussion, nos. III 9023a and III 9023b–c (Pl. 1, Fig. 1), were brought to Berlin by the 4th Turfan Expedition in the year 1914 from the Buddhist cave monasteries in Kizil in the area of Kucha on the Northern Silk Road, today's Province Xinjiang, an autonomous region of the Peoples Republic of China. The murals show peculiar waterscape with persons trying to cross it; they can be compare with similar representations from the area of Kucha.

Migration, Trade and Peoples: Part 2: Gandharan Art

Selection of papers on Gandharan art delivered at the 2005 meeting of the European Association of... more

Traces of Reciprocal Exchange: From Roman Pictorial Models to the World’s Earliest Depictions of Some Narrative Motifs in Andhra Reliefs

Religions

Based on a selection of examples from the sculptural art of Andhra, the paper discusses what poss... more Based on a selection of examples from the sculptural art of Andhra, the paper discusses what possibly motivated the inclusion of motifs and stylistic elements from the ancient Mediterranean into the Buddhist art of the region. While in some cases such adaptations may have been driven by the need to find suitable solutions for the depiction of critical events or by the fact that a foreign motif tied in perfectly with already existing concepts, and thus, reinforced the message to be conveyed, in other cases no such reasons can be detected. Artists seem to have used foreign image types and stylistic variations deliberately to show their supreme craftsmanship or to add aesthetic sophistication to the image programme. The artists of Andhra, therefore, can by no means be regarded as epigones slavishly adhering to the examples set by the Mediterranean; the region—which is the place where narratives later spreading over large parts of Asia and Europe were first depicted—rather has to be reg...

Parinirvāṇa Representations in the Art of Mathura

Mathurā has long been famous as a great centre of Buddhist art. Among the Buddhist art pieces, th... more Mathurā has long been famous as a great centre of Buddhist art. Among the Buddhist art pieces, the number of representations of episodes from the Buddha's life story is limited. Every new narrative representation adds an important dimension to the existing knowledge. A new parinirvāṇa relief was discovered in the Varāha Temple, Mathura.

Fragments of a Divided Whole: On the Exhibition of Several Narrative Reliefs from the Amaravati School of Sculptures

In: Gauri Parimoo Krishnan, R. H. Kulkarni edd. Ratna Dīpaḥ: New Dimensions of Indian Art History and Theory. Essays in Honour of Prof Ratan Parimoo. Delhi: Agam Kala Prakashan, pp. 13-23, 2021

In his paper on the narrative structure and the significance of the snake jatakas 1 Professor Par... more In his paper on the narrative structure and the significance of the snake jatakas 1 Professor Parimoo was able to identify parts of a pillar from the railing of the stupa in Amaravati as belonging together. One fragment is being kept in the Chennai Government Museum, 2 another in the Archaeological Site Museum in Amaravati. 3 The pillar is still far from being completed, even if another fragment in Chennai 4 could be added (fig 1). What we can state, however, following Parimoo, is that the topic of the multiscenic representation which appears to have covered the entire face of the pillar was composed of the narrative of Campaka. The jatakas with a naga as the protagonist comprised an important part of the imagery in Buddhist Andhra. 5 The statement is of importance not only for reasons relating to art history but also in regards to understanding the regional diversities of Buddhism-given, for example, the fact that there is not a single representation of a jataka of a naga from Gandhara. Were the nagas in Gandhara, perhaps-as opposed to in Andhra or in Ajanta-understood only as malicious, and suitable merely for the narratives of the difficult conversions, and unthinkable as the kinder Buddha in his previous re-births? Fig 1: Amaravati, pillar from the railing with representation of the narrative of Campaka, above: Chennai Government Museum, no 113 (photograph by Wojtek Oczkowski), middle: Chennai Government Museum, no 152 (photograph by the present author), below: Archaeological Site Museum in Amaravati, no 23 (photograph by Wojtek Oczkowski); for references cf fns 2, 3, 4.

The Techniques of the Narrative Representations in Old India

This paper aims to present the most specific characteristics of the narrative representations in ... more This paper aims to present the most specific characteristics of the narrative representations in old India with special reference to art in the kingdom of the Sātavāhanas, a dynasty which ruled in central and southern India between the 1st c. BCE and the 3rd c. CE, and had vibrant trade relations with Rome. In the final section new and little-known archaeological material will be presented. The narrative representations produced in the territories of the Sātavāhana Empire were so well-designed and developed that some scholars have considered them to be models for Roman art.1 This idea, which initially seems strange, is certainly worthy of further deliberation since the multi-scene Indian representations predate the Pompeian paintings and Trajan’s Column. The exchange between Rome and India was certainly reciprocal: Roman bronzes have been discovered in the territory of the Sātavāhana Kingdom, and the ‘Casa della Statuetta Indiana’ in Pompeii owes its name to an ivory statue from the...

Saṃsāracakra: The Wheel of Rebirth in Indian Tradition [This book is a translation of the German edition Saṃsāracakra, Das Rad der Wiedergeburten in der indischen Überlieferung, Düsseldorf: Haus der Japanischen Kultur (EKŌ), Munich: Iudicium Verlag, 2007]]

Dev Publishers & Distributors, 2022

In Tibetan art, paintings of the Wheel of Rebirths (Samsaracakra) have remained popular to the pr... more In Tibetan art, paintings of the Wheel of Rebirths (Samsaracakra) have remained popular to the present day. Divided into five (more often six) sections, the wheel shows the different possible realms of rebirth: in the world of the gods, (of the asuras), the humans, the animals, the hungry ghosts, and the beings residing in various hells. The prototypes of these depictions were devised in India where, however, only one such painting survived, namely on the veranda of Cave XVII in Ajanta. Corresponding with the Samsaracakra paintings, a number of texts preserved in Sanskrit, Tibetan and Chinese, provide instructions on how to paint this type of wheel. The mural in Ajanta corresponds most closely to a fragmentary Sanskrit manuscript found in Kucha. This manuscript describes not only the wheel of rebirth, but also the wheel’s surroundings: Mara, god of sensuality and death – two of the main factors leading to rebirth – should be depicted there in his fourfold form, as well as representatives of various sciences, such as different branches of medicine. The wheel itself is defined as a ghatiyantra, pot-machine, which scoops water, and is known today as noria or the “Persian wheel.” The present book contains the edition, translation, and commentary of the fragmentary manuscript from Kucha, and a meticulous analysis of the corresponding Ajanta mural.

Representations of the Parinirvāṇa Story Cycle in Kucha, Delhi: Dev Publishers, Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Leipzig Kucha Studies 2.

The series Leipzig Kucha Studies, in which seventeen volumes are planned, aims at publishing the ... more The series Leipzig Kucha Studies, in which seventeen volumes are planned, aims at publishing the results of the long-term research project (2016-2030) "Buddhist Murals of Kucha on the Northern Silk Road". The project, conducted under the auspices of the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig, focuses on an impressive corpus of wall paintings datable to approximately the fifth to tenth centuries CE and located in the Buddhist cave complexes of the ancient kingdom of Kucha on the Northern Silk Road. These narrative and devotional paintings form one of the most important sources for our understanding of the religious and intellectual history of Buddhism in Central Asia during the first millennium. The project is devoted to recording and annotating all surviving paintings of the region, including the fragments that were removed from their original sites as well as destroyed murals from which only drawings and historical photographs remain.

Essays and Studies in the Art of Kucha. Delhi: Dev Publishers, Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Leipzig Kucha Studies 1.

The "Leipzig Kucha Studies" series is part of the project "Wissenschaftliche Bearbeitung der budd... more

Samsaracakra, Das Rad der Wiedergeburten in der indischen Überlieferung (gemeinsam mit Dieter Schlingloff) Düsseldorf: Haus der Japanischen Kultur (EKŌ), 2007.

Mitleid und Wunderkraft. Schwierige Bekehrungen und ihre Ikonographie im indischen Buddhismus, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2006.

Guide to the Ajanta-Paintings II, Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 2003.

Ajanta – Handbuch der Malereien / Handbook of the Paintings 2: Devotionale und ornamentale Malereien, Vols.1-2, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2003.

Udayana-Schauspiele aus Trivandrum in der Entwicklungsgeschichte der Udayana-Erzählung, Dissertation, München 1991.

Cosmological Aspects -Representations of Deities Holding Sun and Moon in Kucha and Beyond

Rivista degli Studi Orientali

Sun and Moon, who are repeatedly represented in Kucha paintings also appear in the form of discs ... more